Let Katie Do It (1916)

movie

(20)

Country: USA
Genres: Drama
Release: 1916-01-09
Director: Chester M. Franklin , Sidney Franklin
Writers: D.W. Griffith , Bernard McConville
Language: None | English
Stars: Jane Grey , Tully Marshall (1864–1943) , Luray Huntley , Charles West , Ralph Lewis , George C. Pearce , Walter Long , Charles Gorman , Violet Radcliffe , Georgie Stone
Runtime: 50 min
Awards: N/A
AKA: Mother of Seven (United States of America) , De moderlösas lilla mor (Sweden) , Let Katy Do It (United States of America) , Let Katie Do It (United Kingdom) , Mère adoptive (France, French Republic) , Let Katie Do It (United States of America) , De syv smaa Engle (Denmark) , Let Katie Do It
Plot: Katy Standish is a family drudge on a New England farm. Her elder sister "enjoys" poor health and her mother sees to it that Katy not only does her own work but that of the weak or lazy elder, Priscilla. Oliver Putnam, a husky young farmer lad, comes a-courting of Katy, but her parents interfere so much that he is discouraged. Oliver finally goes to Mexico with Ben Standish, uncle of Katy and Priscilla, who owns a valuable mine there. Priscilla marries Caleb Adams, a young man who has bought a farm adjoining that of Standish. Father and Mother Standish die and Katy goes to live with her sister. She soon is doing all the work in the house and as Priscilla rapidly becomes the mother of seven, each and every one of them is turned over to the care of Katy. Then Priscilla and her husband are killed by an express train while driving to the city. Then Katy has to teach school to help keep the wolf from the door. She writes to her uncle, telling of the death of her sister and how the care of her children bad devolved upon her. The uncle invites her to bring the motherless brood with her and make her home with him in Mexico. Oliver Putnam is expecting Katy, but the information about the children has been withheld from him. He is overjoyed when he sees Katy step off the train, but is flabbergasted when he catches sight of the many children. The children have a way of getting between Oliver and Katy and the man takes an antipathy to them. He sees two of them in a mix-up and spanks one of them. Katy catches him in the act and gives him a scathing rebuke. She then happens to hear Oliver tell Dan that he hates children. This puts him completely in the bad graces of Katy. Uncle Ben likes the youngsters. He shows them one time how a series of guns in their little home could be discharged at once by pulling a lever and how a mine around the house could be discharged in a similar manner. He is careful to lock the room, where the weapons of destruction are placed, but one of the children finds out where he has hidden the key. While Katy and Oliver are away on an errand of mercy, Mexicans attack the little house. The children are all there but one. The missing one happens to be outside and escapes to a road, where he is saved by a cowboy who goes after help. Meanwhile the children defend themselves by discharging the guns and firing the mines as their uncle had shown them. Katy and Oliver have a desperate fight, when they are attacked by another band of Mexicans, but hold them off in a deserted cabin, till the cowboys rescue them. Oliver can't help admiring the brave way in which the children have defended the house, and is grateful also for the fact that the silver under the floor has been saved from the Mexicans. So Oliver and Katy forget their differences and make a home for the children in a mansion in the United States.
IMDB:tt0005613